HC reserves orders for cancelling Nityananda's bail

BANGALORE: The Karnataka High Court on Thursday posted to July 18 its orders on a petition by police seeking cancellation of bail to spiritual guru Nityananda and his associate, facing criminal charges including rape, for allegedly influencing witnesses.

The CID filed the petition seeking cancellation of the conditional bail granted to Nityananda and Nithya Bhaktananda in June last year. When Justice Keshav Narayan, who heard the petition, sought reasons for cancellation of bail as it happened in rare cases and needed special reasons, the CID submitted that the accused were influencing witnesses.

The duo were arrested on April 21, 2010 in Himachal Pradesh after they went underground in the wake of telecast of video footage purportedly showing Nityananda in a compromising position with an actress. A case is pending against them in a court in Ramanagara near here over criminal charges, including rape.

Meanwhile, Nityananda in a separate submission in the court said he was in a dilemma over two court orders relating to his plea for going abroad.

He submitted that while the high court had permitted him to visit Kailash Manas Sarovar and other countries with a direction to surrender the passport before July 31, Ramanagara court had fixed the deadline as July 21 and had warned of cancelling the bail if he failed to return by that date.

Noting he filed his application seeking permission to travel abroad three months ago, he said the process to grant him permission took two months making it difficult to visit the places.

He said that by fixing the deadline at July 21, the lower court was "restricting" the high court order.